Chapter 11 Door-to-Door Questioning
Molly woke up early and hurriedly got out of bed, her tattered cloth shoes clattering as she ran outside. When Ji Hefeng opened his eyes, he only saw a glimpse of a dark blue garment disappear through the doorway.
What's so urgent?
Ji Hefeng also got up and went outside with his cane.
"Molly?"
No one responded.
There was no one in the kitchen, and no one in the outhouse either.
"Molly—"
Ji Hefeng called out again.
"I'm here."
Molly was kneeling in the vegetable garden, her buttocks sticking out, her head almost touching the soil.
"What are you doing?" Ji Hefeng asked, puzzled.
"I'm checking if the wild vegetables I brought back have sprouted. Can you see them? They're so lush and green, they don't look like they were just planted yesterday. This bitter chrysanthemum only had four leaves yesterday, but this morning it has five. It's amazing, do plants grow that fast?"
"......."
Ji Hefeng looked at the lush, vibrant wild vegetables. They certainly didn't look like they had just been transplanted yesterday; those that grew naturally probably wouldn't have grown this well.
"It's probably because these are wild vegetables, which are quite resilient." He couldn't think of any other reason besides that.
Molly nodded. "I think so too. After breakfast, I'll go back to the mountains and dig up some more wild vegetables. If we can't finish them, we can dry them and use them when there are no vegetables in winter."
After the work in the fields came to a temporary end, the number of people going into the mountains increased, and the sound of conversation could be heard everywhere.
Molly avoided the crowds, heading towards the most secluded places. She moved quickly, only slowing down after crossing three mountains.
This was an area she had never set foot in before. Molly had only walked a few steps when she found a wild lettuce plant. She pulled the lettuce up, roots and all, and carefully put it into her basket.
After walking for about half an hour, she found a wild pear tree. Due to the drought, the tree only had a dozen or so fruits, and each one was very small with rough, wrinkled skin.
Molly controlled her pink tentacles to pluck them one by one and put them into her basket.
She picked a slightly larger one, took a bite, and her face scrunched up from the sourness.
It tastes awful!
Molly tossed the half-eaten pear back into her basket. If she couldn't eat it fresh, she could take it back and dry it.
After picking the pears, Molly found some dandelions and a few plantains.
Seeing that it was getting late, she was about to turn back when she noticed several purple flowers in front of her.
Thick, brown vines, three leaves, and blue-purple butterfly-shaped flowers... Isn't this the plant my sister mentioned—kudzu root?
While Molly was still trying to figure out if it was kudzu, the pink tentacles had already burrowed into the ground. The next second, the soil cracked open, and thick, dark brown roots emerged from the earth.
"This thing is much bigger than a yam!" Molly exclaimed.
These kudzu roots must have been growing for many years; each one was very large, and just a few filled Molly's basket.
Molly planned to come back several times because she couldn't take it all at once.
Many people went into the mountains today, but few of them made any gains. Ji Hefeng sat under the eaves, watching the villagers return disappointed one by one, and his brows furrowed slightly.
Has Molly found the wild vegetables she wanted?
"Monsoon breeze~"
Ji Hefeng heard a familiar voice, turned his head and looked over, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes, "Why did you come back from here?"
There are too many people over there.
Molly put down her basket, not even waiting to show off what she had brought back. She immediately planted the wild vegetables and a section of kudzu vine in the soil. She planned to plant the kudzu vine at the edge of the vegetable patch so that it wouldn't take up too much space as it climbed.
"You don't like interacting with the people in the village?" Ji Hefeng frowned even more deeply.
“No,” Molly said in a low voice, “I found a patch of kudzu and don’t want anyone to know.”
Ji Hefeng: "......."
Despite his young age, he has quite a few clever ideas.
"There are a lot of people passing by outside, so I'll take the basket home first. Let's have kudzu root porridge for lunch."
"You can decide."
Molly first put the mixed grains in to cook, then went to peel the kudzu roots. She planned to slice and dry the kudzu roots that she couldn't finish eating right away. Once she dug up all the kudzu roots, they wouldn't have to worry about starving to death this winter.
"I need a few winnowing baskets to dry things. I'll ask Aunt Guihua tomorrow if anyone knows how to weave them," Molly said as she worked.
"Ask about the price." Ji Hefeng was worried that the villagers would bully Molly because she was young and an outsider.
Molly silently made a note of it.
Ji Hefeng: "We can also barter, like the kudzu root you have."
"Sure. I won't wait until tomorrow, I'll go ask right away." If she could exchange kudzu root for more, Molly planned to do so. Besides drying kudzu root, she also wanted to dry fruit and vegetables.
Knock knock knock!
A knock sounded on the door.
Molly instinctively hid the kudzu root she was holding in the kitchen.
She had just entered the kitchen when the people outside came in, heading straight for Ji Hefeng under the eaves.
"You are Ji Hefeng?"
The newcomer was a young woman with two braids. Her hair was dry and yellowish, the braids like autumn straw, frizzy and unruly. She was very thin, with sunken cheeks that clearly revealed the outline of her bones. Her hands and feet were long and thin, covered only by a thin layer of skin, as if they would break at the slightest touch.
Ji Hefeng didn't remember knowing such a person. He nodded slightly and said, "I am Ji Hefeng."
"So you'd rather marry a disabled person than marry me?" the girl asked, her eyes red.
Ji Hefeng's face darkened. "It's my freedom to marry whomever I want, what's it to you! My family doesn't welcome you, you can leave."
"I'm not leaving!"
The girl burst into tears, "It's all because of you! Because you don't want to marry me! My parents want to marry me off to an old widow who's lost three wives! Waaah, I'll die if I marry him, I'll die..."
The girl burst into tears.
Ji Hefeng's expression darkened further. "If you don't want to get married, you should go and talk to your parents."
“They won’t listen. My three older brothers are getting married, but we don’t have enough houses. The brigade leader said that those unclaimed houses are only selling for fifty yuan each. With just fifty yuan, you can buy two or three houses. That old widow said he’s willing to pay fifty yuan as a bride price. Fifty yuan for a house—it’s like a windfall! My parents wish they could sell all of us sisters to buy houses, but unfortunately, no one else is willing to pay fifty yuan as a bride price.”
Many people died in the past year or so; several families lost all their members, and their houses were taken back by the production brigade. Because of the purchase of grain seeds, the production brigade was heavily in debt, and the brigade leader planned to sell the houses to raise money to pay off part of the debt.
Ji Hefeng pursed his lips and remained silent. He sympathized with the girl, but that was all he felt. Even without Molly, he would not have married her.
"Where am I inferior to her?" the girl pointed at Molly, looking as if she wanted to devour her.
Molly glanced at the girl, then at Ji Hefeng, and couldn't help but feel nervous. Could Ji Hefeng have changed his mind?
Ji Hefeng: "No matter how good you are, I will not marry you. I already have a wife. You should leave."
"Why?" the girl protested. "I don't understand why you're willing to marry her but not me? If you're marrying her out of pity, then don't I deserve your pity? Do you know that the old widow's first three wives committed suicide because they couldn't bear being beaten and abused by him! If you don't marry me, I'll die, do you know that?"
Ji Hefeng: "If you don't want to get married, you can go to the commune and find the leaders or the women's federation."
"Da Ni—"
Just then, a few more people came in from outside. The moment they saw Da Ni, they rushed in, each grabbing one of Da Ni's arms and dragging her out.
No matter how much Dani struggled, they did not let go.
"Da Ni has been in a bad mood these past few days and said something unpleasant. Comrade Ji, please don't take it to heart," an older man said to Ji Hefeng with a smile.
Ji Hefeng, however, didn't give them a friendly look. "The country advocates freedom of marriage. Isn't what you're doing inappropriate?"
"This is our family matter, Comrade Ji, don't worry about it. Dad, let's go, why waste words with him?"
Zhao Dani was dragged away, crying and cursing all the way.
Only after she could no longer hear Zhao Dani's voice did Molly ask, "Do the commune and the Women's Federation care about these things?"
Ji Hefeng shook his head. "It's probably unlikely. Nowadays, marriages are still decided by parents, and very few people can truly have freedom."
Now, neither of them spoke.
Molly quietly cooked the porridge, then ladled it out and placed it on the table.
Both of them were feeling a bit down, but they didn't slow down at all when they ate the porridge, each of them finishing two large bowls before stopping.
After washing the dishes, Molly cut a piece of kudzu root about the size of a head in half with a knife, put one piece in her basket, and walked out with the basket. "I'm going to Aunt Guihua's house."
Aunt Guihua was weaving straw sandals at the door. She had already finished weaving several pairs, some large and some small.
Seeing the kudzu root in Molly's basket, Aunt Guihua was both surprised and delighted. "Are there still such good things in the mountains these days?"
During the year-long drought, everyone turned over almost every inch of the soil on the mountain, and there wasn't even any grass roots left, let alone kudzu. That's why Aunt Guihua was so surprised when she saw what was in Molly's basket.
Molly smiled but didn't answer.
Aunt Guihua didn't press the matter further; it was something someone else had found, and it would be impolite to keep asking questions.
"You've come all this way, why did you bring anything? Every household is short of food right now, take it back quickly."
“We still have some at home. You lent me vegetable seeds so that we can have vegetables to eat in the fall and winter. I'm just giving you a piece of kudzu root, please accept it without worry.”
Seeing that Molly genuinely wanted to give it to her, Aunt Guihua accepted it. She would cook it with wild vegetables that evening, which would make for another meal.
With a large family and a lot of food to eat, she and her husband were so worried about food that their hair turned completely white.
Aunt Guihua accepted the kudzu root, and Molly then brought up the matter of the winnowing basket.
“Your Uncle Zhao’s family has some. During the drought and famine, your Uncle Zhao wove a lot of things to sell for food, but there was a shortage of food in the countryside and town, so he couldn’t sell them and could only bring them back home. What do you want? I’ll take you there to pick one.”
Uncle Zhao's house is easy to spot. While other houses grow vegetables and grains behind them, his house is planted with bamboo.
When Uncle Zhao heard that Molly wanted to buy a winnowing basket, his perpetually hunched back straightened up.
"What style do you want? How big? Here are some, see if you like them. If you don't, I'll make you a new one." His attitude was almost obsequious, as if he was afraid Molly would change her mind.
His grandson had become so bloated from hunger that he was practically a baby with a large head. The relief food sent down from above could only feed them about 40% of their capacity. He was worried that if things continued like this, his grandson would suffer serious health problems from hunger.
His wife, in order to save food for her grandson, only eats two or three bites a day. Now she is so hungry that she can't stand up straight and can only lie in bed.
Molly thought for a moment, "Seven or eight, I guess."
"How much?" Uncle Zhao couldn't believe the number he was hearing.
"Seven or eight, I'll take." Molly picked up a winnowing basket bigger than a millstone. "How much are these?"
"One sweet potato per pound," Uncle Zhao replied quickly, carefully observing Molly's expression. If she couldn't accept the price, he would lower it further.
"We don't have many sweet potatoes left at home. Is it okay to switch to another type of grain?"
"Potatoes are fine too."
"We don't have many potatoes left. Can we exchange them for kudzu root?"
"Sure, anything edible is fine."
"I need eight kudzu roots in one winnowing basket. I also need three bamboo baskets and three regular baskets."
“The backpack is more expensive, the basket is cheaper. How about this, I’ll charge you one jin for each one, so fourteen will be fourteen jin. Is that alright?”
"Okay. I'll go back and get the kudzu root right away."
Molly didn't have a scale at home, so the kudzu she brought weighed three pounds more than usual. She was too lazy to take it back, so she asked for three more winnowing baskets instead.
These things took up space, so Uncle Zhao helped her bring them back.
She and Ji Hefeng ate some of the kudzu roots they dug up that morning, gave a few kilograms to Aunt Guihua, and traded seventeen kilograms for a winnowing basket, a basket, and a carrying basket. Now, there are only two fist-sized pieces left in the house.
Molly glanced at the sky; it wasn't too late yet, so she could go into the mountains again.
"I'll go dig up some more kudzu roots."
Before Ji Hefeng could speak, Molly rushed out the door.
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